Fake Dads and Feelings
by avan337
Summary: post-Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking: Jeff chats with Annie then Abed
1. Chapter 1

**Fake Dads and Feelings**

After the first day, the group decided to take shifts at the hospital so that they all could get some sleep and a few of them could attend classes.

When her morning shift was over, Annie found Jeff sitting in the waiting room. She gave him a small smile and sat down next to him.

"How is he" Jeff asked, looking down the hall in the direction of Pierce's room.

"The same," Annie answered matter of fact. "He'll be fine."

She shifted her entire body to face him. "How about you?"

"Me?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "I'm great."

When she gave him a skeptical look he added, "Tell me you're not worried that Pierce's sick head game did any lasting damage."

Annie didn't answer, just looked at him, searching his eyes. Jeff determinedly held the eye contact, but he felt his pulse speed up at the thought of what she might actually discover. She had a way of reading him he found disconcerting.

After a few seconds she tilted her head and asked, "Jeff, have I ever told you about Family Day at rehab?"

"Was it as depressing as Greendale's Family Day?"

She ignored his snark and kept talking.

"Right before you graduate from rehab you have to go through Family Day. It's where your family members come and participate in a therapy session with you," she explained. "It gives you the chance to say things to them that you need to say, and for them to see that you're on the mend and ready to leave the facility."

Jeff didn't understand why she was telling him this. "Are you suggesting that Pierce go to rehab and that we'll have to go to this Family Day?"

"No," Annie replied, shaking her head. "I'm saying that my parents didn't show up. My mom never wanted to admit that I had a problem, and she _really_ didn't want to acknowledge that I was in rehab, so she didn't show. And she bullied my dad into not coming, either."

Jeff silently hoped he never met Annie's mother, because from everything he had heard, he was pretty sure he hated her. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"That's not the point," she barreled on. "When I realized my parents weren't coming, I was devastated, but then my counselor played the role of my mom in our therapy session. I was able to say everything I had been afraid to say to her for so long."

Annie gave Jeff a pointed look. "It didn't matter that it wasn't my real mother listening. What mattered is that I said it; that's what brought on the healing process."

Jeff thought about the myriad of things he had yelled at Pierce the day before. He gave her a smirk and cocked his head to the side. "You know, that was _almost_ in the vicinity of subtle. Nice job."

He was expecting a smirk back, but she remained earnest. "All I'm saying is that maybe the idea of facing your father wasn't such a bad thing."

"C'mon, Annie, you know Pierce was just yanking my chain. He was being intentionally cruel."

"I know," she replied. "But maybe by trying to be cruel, he actually did you a favor. Whatever you have to resolve with your dad, you now know you can do it, even if your dad's not here."

When he remained silent she sighed and said, "Anyway, I just thought that might help," then got up to leave.

Jeff placed a hand on her arm, keeping her in her seat. "I know what you're trying to do, and I appreciate it. And," he conceded, "You may even be right."

For that he earned a smile. "Really?"

"Really," he confirmed with a nod. "And I know it's not fun for you to talk about rehab, so thanks for sharing that with me."

Annie shrugged. "It's no big deal."

"Now who's in denial?" he asked softly, teasing.

This time he did get a smirk, along with a slap on his arm.

"I gotta get going," she said after they shared a chuckle. "Are you going to be all right with him?"

"I'm not going to kill him, Annie, of that's what you're worried about," Jeff answered sardonically. "Besides, this almost beats going to class."

"Lucky for you I have my handy dandy recorder," she said in a sing song voice. "I'm going to copy my Anthropology notes for everyone tonight. It will be just like you were in class!"

He groaned at her enthusiasm and lifted himself out of his seat. "Goodbye, Annie," he said gruffly as he walked across the waiting area.

As he reached the hallway he looked back. She was hunched over, adjusting her backpack over her shoulders. When she saw him watching her, Annie smiled and waved.

She looked so innocent he wanted to cry. He settled for giving her a goofy grin and waving back.

Sighing, Jeff made his way to Pierce's room. Between dealing with a grumpy, old, detoxing man and staring at that damn tiara she insisted on giving back, it was going to be a long afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Protection**

When Pierce announced he needed to take a big dump, Jeff called for a nurse and decided _he_ needed a break. As he walked toward the vending machines he saw Abed sitting in the waiting area, furiously writing in his notebook.

Taking a seat next to him he said simply, "You're early."

Abed looked up and noticed him for the first time. "Yeah," he answered, "gives me time to map out my editing strategy for the documentary."

When Jeff just nodded, Abed asked, "How's Pierce?"

"He's still a complete douche, which I guess means he's going to be fine."

"Cool, cool, cool," he replied. After a few moments of silence he turned his face to Jeff. "You protected Annie yesterday."

"I did what now?" Jeff asked quizzically.

"When the nurse called Annie to get her bequeathed gift, you wouldn't let her go in," Abed explained. "You were protecting her from Pierce's head games."

"I was protecting the group," he scoffed as nonchalantly as he could. "I thought I could get Pierce to listen to reason and leave the rest of you alone."

Abed shook his head then pointed his finger at his friend. "If that were true, you would have done something after Shirley, because it was obvious with her gift that Pierce was messing with everyone. But you let Britta go in. You only intervened when it was Annie's turn."

Jeff thought for a minute, looking for a good response, but didn't find any. He remembered feeling Annie's whole body tense up beside him when the nurse had called her name; how frightened she had looked. What else could he do?

But he wasn't about to say that, so he settled for, "It's a good thing you don't have a camera in my face right now, Abed."

"It's okay, she protected you, too," was the reply he got.

"When did you decide to start talking in riddles?"

Abed explained, "After your blow up in the hallway yesterday, Annie came to me and asked me not to include that footage in the documentary. She said, 'Jeff's dealing with his father is a serious thing, so please don't trivialize it or exploit him.'"

Jeff was clearly taken aback. "Wow, she did that?" He thought she was too caught up in her tiara torture to pay much attention to his freaking out. A small smile formed on his lips as he pictured her using her most formidable face on the filmmaker.

"Yeah, she did," Abed answered, "so I'm not using a lot of the footage. It would make for a better movie, but Annie suggested that friendship trumps a quality film, at least when it's just something I'm doing for Pierce."

"I've always said Annie's the smartest person in this group," Jeff noted, to which Abed nodded his head. After a few beats Jeff gave him a pointed glare. "You're not planning to use this protection thing as a part of the movie, are you?"

Abed looked directly at him, clearly unfazed by the threatening stare. "I thought a side romance might add something, but there isn't going to be enough time for it. Besides, Troy's freak out over meeting LeVar Burton is much more interesting footage."

Jeff had never been happier to be boring. "Great. So, this conversation is going to stay between us, too, right?"

"Don't worry, Jeff. I won't tell anybody that you and Annie protected each other, so no one will sit around wondering what that means," he said. "Besides, it will all come out eventually, with or without my help."

Before he could comment, the alarm on Abed's watch went off. Abed silenced the beep, closed his notebook and tucked the pen into the spiral wire. "It's time for my shift," he noted as he stood up. "Later, Jeff."

Over the last 24 hours, Jeff felt like he had been picked up and tossed into a tornado, and was now being unceremoniously dumped on his ass. Shaking his head, he called out, "Bye, Abed," to the fleeting form of his friend.

He sat there for a few minutes longer, thinking about Pierce's head games, his dad and his friends: how they had each, in their own way, been there for him yesterday.

He pulled out his phone and typed out a text: "Thanks for having my back with Abed re: the movie."

A response came in a few seconds later: "He told you?"

A minute later came a second text: "You're welcome. Let's not tell anybody, ok? I don't want people to think Abed comprised his artistic integrity."

Jeff laughed as he left the hospital and walked to his car, wondering how she managed such a lengthy text while sitting in the front row of her Calculus class. The smile vanished, though, as he realized it was him that she was protecting again, not Abed.

After he buckled in his seat belt he stared at his phone for a few seconds before finally typing in: "Our secret, but you've earned a latte and a muffin. About to drive; see u tomorrow."

The only response he got was a smiley face because she didn't want to distract him on the road.

If he thought too much about it, the idea of Annie protecting him just might freak him out. But at this moment, after everything that had happened in the last 24 hours, it felt pretty damn good.


End file.
